Saturday, March 28, 2009

Another cooking experience

As I may have mentioned before, I have become a much more creative cook since coming here. In part because I don't have my cookbooks here and in part because of the difference in what's available here.

This week we had some milk that was past date but it smelled okay. There was too much to toss if it was still good, but I didn't want to taste it, nor did Sister Humphrey. So, I decided to make pudding. We also had eggs that needed to be used and some coconut that we weren't sure of.

I couldn't find a recipe for pudding (or pie filling) that sounded like mine, so I decided to wing it. I mixed the ingredients and cooked it (cooking on gas goes much more quickly than on electric burners). It did bubble so I mixed in the egg yolks and melted butter (and then remembered I always put the butter in with the vanilla at the end). Anyway, it thickened up, like cream puffs do when you are cooking them--separating from the sides of the pan. I went ahead and added the "vanilla" and coconut and plopped it into a bowl.

Then, it all came back to me--the right way to make it. The recipe I had called for 3/8 C flour. I always used about 2 T of cornstarch (I think). The "vanilla" was almond flavoring and a little of that goes a long way. The coconut seems okay but is overpowered by the almond flavoring.

Their liquid flavorings come in small tubes, not bottles like we're used to. But, then the baking powder (we finally found some) comes in packets like dry soup mix, only smaller, as does cinnamon.

Anyway, Sister Humphrey liked the pudding and it didn't taste too bad. The texture was definitely not creamy. By the way--the milk was good, or at least didn't make the pudding taste bad!